Be a Top React Native Developer With This List Of High-Quality Assets

Do you want to use a single framework to build native applications for all mobile platforms? Then React Native is the way to go. To help you master it, we’ve prepared a selection of luscious content that will make you a more powerful React Native developer.

React Native is one of those frameworks that you can’t learn enough of. Once you get the hang of it, it can shorten mobile application development times, enabling you to build and publish market-ready apps very quickly.

If you’re just starting to learn about React Native, or you’re already using it but sometimes get stuck looking for a solution – this article is for you. We’ll start with a short introduction to React Native, and move on to listing several of the most useful resources for every React Native developer as of November 2018.

What makes React Native so important?

The whole world is going mobile. Worldwide revenues from mobile apps are predicted to exceed $180 billion in 2020 from “just” $88 billion in 2016. React Native is one of the leading technologies that are powering this market growth.

It was built on the back of React, a JavaScript library for building user interfaces created inside Facebook and made open-source in 2013. React Native was released 2 years later, in 2015, and it has enabled developers to spend less time building mobile applications for iOS, Android and Windows 10. Using just JavaScript and React, developers can combine ready-made building blocks to build applications that look and work like a native app on all major mobile platforms.

Because it’s so important, many developers are looking to level up in it. That’s why we’ve dug deep into the React Native community to find several useful educational resources for mastering this powerful technology.

List of free resources to make you a master React Native developer

1. The state of React Native (2018)

The first resource is an informative video from the Coding Tech YouTube channel. It’s a channel that collects valuable talks from tech conferences. The channel has plenty of videos about React Native, but the most recent one is the one we want you to check out first:

It’s a recording of a 26-minute long talk given by Parashuram (@nparashuram), a front-end engineer from Facebook. He starts with an overview of how Facebook uses React Native, talks about unique problems that they are facing at Facebook due to its huge scale, and goes into the details of how React Native turns your JavaScript code into native UI on a mobile screen.

The video is worth watching because it is a fresh (published on August 28th) perspective of the framework from a React Native developer highly qualified in the subject. He works at the company that built this technology.

2. First application in React Native (and why it’s the future)

This is an article written by Taylor Milliman, a software engineer working at Thumbtack.

It will be most useful for developers who aren’t convinced about React Native, and those that are building their first apps using this technology:

After building my first React Native app, I’m now convinced it’s the future.
Taylor Milliman

This React Native tutorial is a 6-minute read in which Taylor will tell you:

• Why React Native is here to stay
• How it’s different from other cross-platform frameworks
• What’s the best way to create a React Native app and style it (with links to other resources)
• How to keep improving your skills

The article is based on Taylor’s own story of building his first mobile application using this technology, and it shows you the way to kickstart your own first project in React Native.

After you’ve read the article, I encourage you to browse FreeCodeCamp’s Medium publication for more content, as it’s a great community where developers constantly exchange valuable insights and experiences.

3. Best new community for developers – DEV.TO

Our next resource is a community built by React Native developers, for React Native developers – DEV.TO.

It was founded in 2016 by Ben Halpern along with two co-founders, and it’s a platform for developers to share experiences and learn from each other.

Alongside content regarding just about any software development technology, there are many React Native developers who share valuable input that can help you better understand this framework.

List of articles about React Native on DEV.TO

Having the opportunity to learn from other people’s experiences is an invaluable asset, which makes DEV.TO the go-to community for sharing knowledge and learning from real-life coding examples.

4. React Native Katas – interactive learning project

This next resource is a unique project created by Dotan J. Nahum (@jondot), CTO at COMO.

It is an interactive, hands-on, practical course for learning design and styling in React Native.

List of resources on React Native Katas

A “Kata” means a way to practice something, and this course challenges you to fail fast and learn efficiently by completing pre-designed React Native coding tasks. It consists of a framework that runs and validates your Katas, a smart roadmap of learning material that will keep you engaged, and a friendly set-up to give you full immersion in the learning process.

If you’re not using React Native in any project at the moment, or just need a skill boost, this course provides a way to get practical experience in designing and styling, and it will help you master fundamental React Native principles.

5. All-in-one React Native resource

This is a behemoth of a resource with so many React Native materials that you’d have a hard time going through it all. The name of creator should ring a bell. It is Dotan J. Nahum, the same developer who built the React Native Katas described above.

It is a massive collection of news, articles, references, how-tos, frameworks, tutorials, books, videos, etc. – in short, all you might ever need as a React Native developer.

List of resources on Awesome React Native

This project gives you links to all React Native resources you might ever need. If you’re having a hard time finding a solution, or just want to learn a bit more about this technology, this is your go-to place for everything related to React Native.

6. How to test React Native components

Testing is one of the most important aspects of code development, but when deadlines are closing in on us, sometimes we don’t have time to do it.

That’s why Brian Leonard, CTO, and co-founder at Taskrabbit, gave a talk in which he shares a process for testing React Native components:

In his 15-minute talk, he provides good reasoning for why testing is important, and a solid idea of a process to implement in order to test your React Native apps. Particularly useful if you work at a React Native development company.

7. Never forget about the documentation

I know – it’s painfully obvious, but sometimes developers forget that official docs are a great place to look for useful information and solutions.

That’s why the last point on our list is the React Native documentation, maintained by the creators of this technology.

This site contains all of the basic information about React Native, a lot of guides for specific use-cases, detailed descriptions of all the components, along with countless additional resources and the React Native blog that you can follow to get fresh updates about this technology.

Hopefully, these resources will help you reach an unparalleled level of mastery in React Native. Enjoy the learning and good luck! See you on GitHub 🙂

We thrive for excellence, so we do our best to learn as much as we can about the technologies we use to develop software – including React Native. Contact us if you want to ask questions or discuss React Native with experts on our team.